Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania’s Night Vapor ponder music’s least-pondered questions: can noise-rock crudity and high-minded modern composition coexist in the same song? Can the results be made to “rock” – even “swing”? Can a multi-record career be eked out from that formula?

Lashed together according to those propositions, as deranged as they are focused, their upcoming release "1,000 Miles of Mud" (via Corpse Flower Records) lays out a potent statement of vision.

The band’s four members have done enough time in prog/noise-rock acts to know how to deliver the oft-damaged goods.

This rhythm section is at Night Vapor's core, slogging together as one oafish force.

Their sludgy, shambolic vamps play foil to the down-tuned chugs, slashing tone clusters, and intricate lines unleashed by guitarist (and genuine Ph. D. composer) Aaron Myers-Brooks, who unravels strings of notes in atonal filigrees, or allows them to dangle and swoop over the din, precarious and dreamlike as Calder mobiles.